Apollo At Go

by Jeff Sutton

They were hurtling over it, hur-tling and dropping. He fought his harnessing to lean closer to the port...

There a small crater, here a hill, a crevice, a milky rec-tangle that looked absolutely smooth and rock hard — this was an inferno without fire, a hell, the architecture of a maddened nature. The House of Lucifer...

"Zero percent fuel," Kovac rapped out edgily.

"Max says zero on the fuel. Still going down. Trying to hold steady but can't. Ash looks deep, deep... Rocks right next to us jagged and Oh, there she goes... main engines off. Small jets can't...We're falling..."

Genres: Science Fiction

183 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

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There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

Reviews

[Joe Santoro · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you didn't know better, you'd think this was a technical description of the first moon landing... Sutton certainly knows his stuff, and very accurately predicts both the time (July 1969) and most of the methods they actually used in the Moon Landing. Granted it was just 6 years in his future, but still, and impressive bit of speculative science.

He big reveal (life on the Moon) is just dropped in... that would have been a MUCH bigger deal, but that was clearly not his purpose.. this is simply a fictional documentary to get people excited for the possibility of a moon landing, and perhaps throw some shade on nay sayers.. the only bit of politics is talking about a senator that thinks it's a waste of money, and making him look a bit silly.

I also get the feeling he was perhaps making a point that it's not a great idea not to bring extra fuel.

Incidently, for all the accuracy in the text, the cover is totally sci fi, which is kinda weird.

[Arnold · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating 1963 look at a future moon landing, especially in contrast with the same author's 1958 novel First on the Moon. The earlier book, written before any people had been to space, had much more of a pulpy sci-fi angle—think sabotage, undercover agents, and gun battles on the moon. Apollo at Go was published in 1963, after astronauts (and cosmonauts) had been to orbit, and as the early planning for the moon landing had begun. It takes a dramatically more realistic approach to the topic, presenting a pretty authentic (and at times prescient) view of what an Apollo landing would be like. There are a few misses—in the book the landing takes place at night because the suits are better able to handle low temperatures than high ones, which didn't end up being an issue, and throughout the book everyone calls the Lunar Module the "Moon Bug," which is a nickname that never stuck—but it's impressive how much he gets right a full six years before the Apollo 11 landing. The basic elements of the mission configuration are all there, explained in impressive engineering detail. Sutton even predicts the timing of the landing to July 1969, within a few weeks of the actual date. There's a bit of extra drama thrown in at the end, but for the most part the book is just an account of a smooth Apollo moon landing mission, written long before those plans were finalized. For an Apollo nerd like me, this was an excellent read.

[Alton Motobu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Semi-documentary story about man's first trip to the moon. Too technical at times - descriptions of flight procedures, moon topography, etc. Two interesting diversions: discovery of primitive life on the moon and mysterious death of the orbiter pilot, but not developed at all! Dated.

[Illusive · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Es war soweit. Oberstleutnant Joseph Faulk, USMC, wußte es ganz sicher. Außerdem war die Wahl der drei Astronauten, die mit dem Raumschiff APOLLO auf dem Mond landen sollten, längst überfällig. Die dreistufige Saturn C-S, die als Trägerrakete für die APOLLO diente, war startbereit - jetzt mußten nur noch drei der elf Astronauten der NASA als Besatzung bestimmt werden."
APOLLO AUF MONDKURS ist eine dramatische Reportage aus der Welt von morgen - ein Bericht vom größten Abenteuer, das der Menschheit bevorsteht!

Hätte ich dieses Buch 1963 (1965 deutsche Ausgabe) gelesen, 6 Jahre vor der eigentlichen Mondlandung, wäre es vielleicht wesentlich interessanter und faszinierender gewesen. 50 Jahre nach der Mondlandung jedoch schaue ich mir dann doch lieber die Dokumentation zu Apollo 11 an. Mal abgesehen vom Unfall mit dem Meteoriteneinschlag ist der Roman sehr nah an der Realität geschrieben und auch die technischen Erklärungen sind gut. Eigentlich ein guter Roman, aber die Zeit und die Geschichtsbücher haben ihn überholt.